Ex-girlfriend speaks out about veteran's suicide as government says sorry

The former girlfriend of an ADF veteran who took his life says he was killed by red tape and let down by his country after the Department of Veterans Affairs rejected his claim for compensation.

Former soldier Jesse Bird had $5.20 left in his bank account in the week before he died, his family says.

The 32-year-old’s plea for financial help from the Department of Veteran Affairs (DVA) a week earlier had fallen on deaf ears.

Mr Bird’s body was found in his Melbourne apartment on June 27, 2017, surrounded by his war medals and letters he had received from the DVA.

Counsellor Connie Boglis, who was Mr Bird’s girlfriend for two years, told Nine.com.au her former partner was pointing his finger squarely at the DVA when he died.

"If you have a look at the statement that he made on (the day he died), with the paperwork, with all of his medals laid out, he was sending them a message."

"The poor man who served our country came home to Australia with nothing. He wasn’t acknowledged for his mental health illness or that he served his country, he received nothing."

Connie Boglis’s comments come as Veterans Affairs Minister Dan Tehan admitted in parliament yesterday the system had failed the former rifleman and issued a frank apology to his loved ones.

Mr Tehan said a key issue in Mr Bird’s case was a department requirement that mental health conditions be “stable” before compensation is offered.

"In addition, the provision of financial assistance when veterans are at their most vulnerable is needed. These issues let Jesse down as he was unable to get financial assistance when he needed it," Mr Tehan said.

'It was love at first sight for me', Ms Boglis said. ()

Once a young man “booming with charisma and self-confidence”, Mr Bird saw horrors at war that changed him during his service in Afghanistan from 2009-2010.

He was shot at by insurgents and one of his closest mates, Private Benjamin Ranaudo, was killed by an improvised explosive device.

Ms Boglis, who is now working on a documentary telling the stories of veterans and following a senate inquiry into the suicide of veterans, said it was she who first convinced Mr Bird to seek help from a counsellor over his mental health.

The pair met online in 2014 and hit it off almost instantly on their first date, she said.

"I guess I was pretty naïve to what our men and women go through. All I know is that I just admired him and his courage. He would be there for you in a heartbeat and that came across,” she said.

"He was a natural protector. That was Jesse. I think it was love at first sight for me.

"But I guess cracks started to show as we started dating.

"When we went on a holiday and a theme park ride stopped working we were confined for 15-20 minutes. He was physically trying to get out of the cradle and got quite aggressive. I had to try and calm him down.

"There were little signs of PTSD, or depression from our conversations. But Jesse was quiet and introverted, so you wouldn’t get much from him unless he was confronted or there was an argument and even then it was quite difficult.

"As the relationship grew I was starved of communication and how to help him."

After starting to see a counsellor and a psychiatrist, Mr Bird was officially diagnosed with PTSD.

The couple began the years’ long process of trying to lodge a claim for compensation from the DVA.

The nightmarish trail of paperwork and endless bureaucracy that followed would send Mr Bird over the edge, Ms Boglis said.

Mr Bird took his own life weeks after his claim for compensation was rejected by the DVA. ()

Ms Boglis said the system failed Mr Bird in many ways, and one of the biggest failings was that the DVA never even met with the former soldier face-to-face.

"If they had gone to Jesse’s house they would have seen the way he was living. They would see that he wasn’t well."

"Someone (from the DVA) called Jesse on July 18. He died on June 27, who were they calling on July 18?

"They would send Jesse letters at home with information about his claim and he wouldn’t even open them because even the DVA emblem gave him anxiety.

"As a counsellor myself, if I sent my young people a letter saying, ‘How are you going, or here is some information about how to see a counsellor’, I would have a lot of kids that are statistics now too. They need you on the ground.

"They need to be out of the office and looking the veteran in the eye.”

Ultimately their relationship could not survive Mr Bird’s illness, and the pair broke up less than a year before he took his own life.

"If he received some kind of income while we were together we would still be together. Not having the pressure on us to pay bills, Jesse being home, unmotivated,” Ms Boglis said.

"His mental health declining, his medications, he had so much medication.

"If we had some kind of financial assistance he would feel like he was acknowledged. He would feel like he could get on with his life. He would have a future. We were trying to start a family, we wanted to buy a house.
"How do you do that when your partner can’t move on with his life - when he is completely stonewalled?"

In the months following Mr Bird’s death, his parents and Ms Boglis have continued to speak up about the ways in which the veteran was failed, vowing they "aren’t going to go away".

A report into the DVA’s handling of Mr Bird’s case found there were serious flaws in the department’s system as well as several times when official procedure was not followed.

The DVA took 192 days to process Mr Bird’s permanent impairment claim, 72 days more than the department considers acceptable.

Mr Bird's mental health worsened as he remained lost in a nightmare jungle of paperwork relating to his DVA claim. ()

The department judged his PTSD to be a "six out of ten" and said while it was serious it was not serious enough, and it had not reached a stage where it was considered stable and permanent.

Speaking in parliament, Mr Tehan said 19 recommendations had come out of the report into the handling of Mr Bird’s case that will be addressed in next month’s senate inquiry.

Ms Boglis said she had met with the minister since Mr Bird’s death and had discussed the recommendations.

One option under discussion is the development of an app where veterans can make claims online.

The app would eliminate the paperwork, simplify the process and allow veterans to upload photos with their information, Ms Boglis said.

Next year, Ms Boglis will travel around Australia interviewing veterans as part of her documentary into suicides within the ADF.

"I want to hear the voices of the unheard because there are so many veterans who, silently like Jesse, don’t speak about what is happening to them and they don’t trust enough to do so," Ms Boglis said.

Ms Boglis will also travel to Canberra to meet with more politicians and document the senate inquiry.

"I’ll be documenting the process of change but also holding the government accountable to the things that they say in writing that they will do. This documentary will hold them accountable," Ms Boglis.

An online page set up to raise money towards the cost of making the documentary has so far collected almost $7000.

Readers seeking support and information about suicide prevention can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14.